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en-usEngadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronicsCopyright 2018 AOL Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only.https://massively.joystiq.com/2013/09/30/not-so-massively-star-citizen-hits-20m-lol-semi-finals-and-d/https://massively.joystiq.com/2013/09/30/not-so-massively-star-citizen-hits-20m-lol-semi-finals-and-d/https://massively.joystiq.com/2013/09/30/not-so-massively-star-citizen-hits-20m-lol-semi-finals-and-d/#comments

Star Citizen hit the $20 million crowdfunding mark this week and announced that its $22 million goal will be for the purchase of equipment to capture actors' faces and put them in-game. Diablo III site Diablofans found more juicy hints about the upcoming Reaper of Souls expansion in its latest datamining attempt, and developers have opened a discussion on the problems caused by low character health pools. Path of Exile released patch 0.11.6 this week, adding in the new Lightning Trap and Smoke Mine skill gems and rebalancing existing traps and mines. After laying off 10% of its staff, Firefall developer Red 5 Studios has released a new optional subscription package that grants bonus Crystite, manufacturing slots, and marketplace slots.

The semi-finals of League of Legends' Season Three World Championship took place this weekend, ending with Korean favourite SK Telecom T1 and Chinese team Royal Club advancing to the grand final to compete for the million-dollar top prize. Frustrated with the difficulty of learning to use Pudge's Meat Hook ability, a Dota 2 player has developed a standalone mini-game designed to let players train to aim the ability. Classic DC Comics character Catwoman was added to Infinite Crisis as a playable avatar this week, and award-winning Russian MOBA Prime World is now on Steam despite missing its intended mid-September Steam release date.
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0.11.620-millionaction-mmoaction-rpgbatmanbattlenetbetasblizzardblizzard-entertainmentbusiness modelscatwomancloud-imperiumcompetitive-gamingcrowdfundingcrystited3data-miningdcdc-comicsdev diariesdiablodiablo iiidiablo-2diablo-3diablo-iidiablo-iiidiablofansdotadota-2e-sporte-sportsesportesportsexpansionsf2pface-capturefantasyfeaturedfinalfirefallfree-to-playgame mechanicsgothic-fantasygrand-finalgrinding-geargrinding-gear-gamesinfinite crisisinfinite-crisisitemsjokerleague of legendsleague-of-legendslollootmeat-hookmeat-hook-trainermillion-dollarsmmo industrymobamultiplayernewsnews itemsnivalnot so massivelynot-so-massivelynsmonline-multiplayeropinionparagon-studiospatchpatchespath of exilepath-of-exilepatrick-mackeypoeprime-worldpudgepvepvevppvpquarter-finalreaper-of-soulsred-5-studiosriotriot-gamesround-uprounduproyal-clubrpgsandboxsci-fiseason-3season-threesemi-finalsk-telecom-t1star citizenstar-citizenstatstat-capsstatssteamsupermanteam-solo-midthe-jokertravis-daytsmturbinevalvevideovipwarner-broswhipwonder-womanworld-championshipswyatt-chengMon, 30 Sep 2013 20:00:00 -0400319|20732794https://massively.joystiq.com/2013/07/22/not-so-massively-path-of-exiles-twitch-integration-prime-worl/https://massively.joystiq.com/2013/07/22/not-so-massively-path-of-exiles-twitch-integration-prime-worl/https://massively.joystiq.com/2013/07/22/not-so-massively-path-of-exiles-twitch-integration-prime-worl/#comments

Star Citizen asked backers to stop reselling exclusive ship models with lifetime insurance via the forum and warned buyers that these purchases are at their own risk. Chris Roberts also removed personal meeting options from several high-price pledge tiers due to his time being stretched very thin, but he took the time out to chat with Massively's Jef Reahard on plans for the game's future. Meanwhile, David Braben defended his company's recent £10 million public share release and assured fans of Elite: Dangerous that he retains full creative control over the title.

Diablo III developer Wyatt Cheng revealed on the game's forums that a sizeable nerf may be incoming to lifesteal, life on hit, and life regeneration as part of an ongoing effort to reduce the spikiness of incoming damage. Path of Exile embraced its livestreaming popularity with the release of full in-game Twitch integration that includes Twitch chat in game chat. Massively sat down with Firefall developer Red 5 Studios this week to discuss its open beta and fan concerns on keeping pay-to-win items out of the cash shop.

League of Legends gave players a second chance to transfer to the new Russian server for free and introduced a great new change to Baron coming in the next patch. Dota 2 prepared for its $2.6 million US world championship tournament with new features added to the tournament's digital compendium. Heroes of Newerth released a new devblog on upcoming Patch 3.2 and its plans to completely revamp underused Djinn hero Saloman. Russian MOBA Prime World announced that its western open beta will kick off this week on July 26th. And after rebranding the game as a MOBA, End of Nations' developers argued that the game hasn't actually changed much at all.
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aaron-van-noteaction-mmoaction-rpgbattlenetbetasblizzardblizzard-entertainmentbrabenbusiness modelschris-robertscloud-imperiumcompetitive-gamingcrowdfundingd3david-brabendev diariesdiablodiablo iiidiablo-2diablo-3diablo-iidiablo-iiidotadota-2e-sporte-sportseliteelite: dangerousesportesportsevents (real-world)f2pfantasyfeaturedfree-to-playfrontierfrontier-developmentsgame mechanicsgothic-fantasygrinding-geargrinding-gear-gamesguardianheroes-of-newerthhonintegrationinterviewinterviewsipojef-reahardkickstarterleague of legendsleague-of-legendslinuxlivestreamlivestreaminglolmacmillion-dollarsmmo industrymmofpsmmortsmobamultiplayernew titlesnewsnews itemsnivalnot so massivelynot-so-massivelynsmonline-multiplayeropen-betapatch-3.2patchespath of exilepath-of-exilepoeprime-worldpvepvevppvpred-5-studiosresaleriotriot-gamesroberts-space-industriesround-uprounduprpgrsirussiarussians2s2-gamessalomansandboxscamsci-fiserver-transfersharesspaceshipsstar citizenstar-citizenstreamingthe-internationaltrion-worldstwitchtwitch-integrationtwitch-tvvalvevideowyatt-chengMon, 22 Jul 2013 20:00:00 -0400319|20671826https://massively.joystiq.com/2013/07/15/not-so-massively-elite-dangerous-goes-public-dota-2-launches/https://massively.joystiq.com/2013/07/15/not-so-massively-elite-dangerous-goes-public-dota-2-launches/https://massively.joystiq.com/2013/07/15/not-so-massively-elite-dangerous-goes-public-dota-2-launches/#comments

League of Legends announced plans for its upcoming Season three World Championship tournament this week and revealed details of a full Master Yi revamp coming as part of Patch 3.9. After two years of not quite being released, Dota 2 officially launched and saw a small increase in player numbers. The second season of Heroes of Newerth's competitive HoNTour League is about to get underway, but organisers have revealed that there will be cash prizes for only the top six teams in each cycle.

Diablo III fansite DiabloFans revealed some interesting information on upcoming development following an interview with developers, including the fact that the game won't be a launch title for the PS4 or XBox One. Path of Exile upgraded its map-to-maker system to also assign dropped magic and rare maps to the creator of a map area, and it slashed some of its microtransaction item prices.

Firefall developer Red 5 Studios announced its first $10,000 US cash prize tournament series and profiled Star Citizen in its latest Rise of the Indies show on YouTube. Elite: Dangerous released £4 million ($5.9 million US) worth of shares to the public on the London Stock Exchange, adding to the impressive amount of capital the developers already have access to. And End of Nations now falls firmly within the remit of this column after recently rebranding itself from an MMO to a MOBA.
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action-mmoaction-rpganaheimbailbatmanbattlenetbetasblizzardblizzard-entertainmentbrabenbusiness modelschampionchampion-revampchampion-reworkchampionschronoscloud-imperiumcolognecompetitive-gamingconsoleconsolescrowdfundingd3dallasdavid-brabendev diariesdiablodiablo iiidiablo-2diablo-3diablo-iidiablo-iiidiablofansdotadota-2dravene-sporte-sportseliteelite: dangerousesportesportsevents (in-game)events (real-world)f2pfantasyfdevfeaturedfirefallfree-to-playfrontierfrontier-developmentsgame mechanicsgo4firefallgold-coinsgothic-fantasygrinding-geargrinding-gear-gamesheroheroes-of-newerthhonhon-tourhontourinfinite crisisinfinite-crisisinfinite-crisis-videointerviewsipojailjosh-mosqueirakickstarterlaunchesleague of legendsleague-of-legendsleblanclolmapmapsmaster-yimicrotransactionsmmo industrymmortsmobamoscowmultiplayernew titlesnewsnews itemsnot so massivelynot-so-massivelynsmonline-multiplayerparagon-studiospatchespath of exilepath-of-exilepetroglyphpoeps3ps4pvepvpred-5-studiosrevampreworkriotriot-gamesround-uprounduprpgs2s2-gamessandboxsci-fishanghaismitestar citizenstar-citizensteamtournamenttravis-dayunique-itemsvalvevideowyatt-chengxboxxbox-360xbox-oneMon, 15 Jul 2013 20:00:00 -0400319|20665265https://massively.joystiq.com/2013/04/08/not-so-massively-jumping-on-the-moba-bandwagon/https://massively.joystiq.com/2013/04/08/not-so-massively-jumping-on-the-moba-bandwagon/https://massively.joystiq.com/2013/04/08/not-so-massively-jumping-on-the-moba-bandwagon/#comments

It seems as if everyone is jumping on the MOBA bandwagon lately and trying to cut a slice of the action for himself. Creative Assembly announced that the next game in the Total War series will be a MOBA with RTS elements named Total War: Arena. MMO developer Turbine has also thrown its hat in the ring, teaming up with Warner Bros. and DC comics to develop a MOBA based on the Infinite Crisis DC storyline.

League of Legends continued its plans to revamp old characters with overhauls to Sejuani and Trundle. Developers also revealed upcoming Ice Witch champion Lissandra, a crowd-controlling mage who can cast some of her spells mana-free. Guardians of Middle-Earth finally released Frodo Baggins as a DLC character, and Heroes of Newerth announced that the $60,000 grand final of HonTour Season One will take place later this month in Las Vegas.

In a new Diablo III developer journal, Blizzard discussed its efforts to get players into multiplayer and public games, including some gameplay improvements and a new matchmaking tag system. Path of Exile's Patch 0.10.5 went live today, adding three powerful new support gems, four new unique items, and several balance changes and bug-fixes. And Torchlight II gave modders a huge gift this week by releasing its in-house development tools to the public and officially adding Steam Workshop support to the game.
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action-mmoaction-rpgarchonbandwagonbatmanbattlenetbetasblizzardblizzard-entertainmentbusiness modelscargo-cultcompetitive-gamingconsolecreative-assemblyd3dcdc-comicsdev diariesdiablodiablo iiidiablo-2diablo-3diablo-iidiablo-iiidominiondotae-sporte-sportseditoresportesportsf2pfantasyfeaturedfree-to-playfrodofrodo-bagginsgame mechanicsgothic-fantasygrinding-geargrinding-gear-gamesguardians-of-middle-earthgutsguts-editorheroes-of-newerthhonhon-tourhoncasthontourice-witchinfinite crisisinfinite-crisisjokerleague of legendsleague-of-legendslissandralollord-of-the-ringslotrmatchmakingmeleemiddle-earthmmo industrymobamodmoddermoddingmodding-communitymodding-toolsmodsmonolithmonolith-studiosmultiplayermultiplayer-online-battle-arenanew titlesnewsnews itemsnightmare-batmannot so massivelynot-so-massivelynsmonline-multiplayerpatchespath of exilepath-of-exileplayer-generated contentplaystation-networkpoeps3psnpvepvpriotriot-gamesround-uprounduprpgrunic-gamess2s2-gamessegasejuanisteamsteam-workshopsupermanthe-jokerthe-one-ringtotal-wartotal-war-arenatrundleturbineturbine-entertainmentvideowarner-broswizardwonder-womanwyatt-chengxboxxbox-360xbox-livexbox360Mon, 08 Apr 2013 20:00:00 -0400319|20532871https://www.joystiq.com/2013/03/30/diablo-3s-missing-runestones-found-at-gdc/https://www.joystiq.com/2013/03/30/diablo-3s-missing-runestones-found-at-gdc/https://www.joystiq.com/2013/03/30/diablo-3s-missing-runestones-found-at-gdc/#comments

If you've followed Diablo 3's development for a long time, you might remember the idea of Runestones. They were meant to be actual in-game items that could supplement character abilities in various ways, such as adding a fire attack to a melee hit, or doubling the power of a spell for free. When the game arrived last year, the Runestone system was nowhere to be seen, replaced by the controversial Skill Rune system. So where did those Runestones go? Diablo 3's technical designer Wyatt Cheng said during a talk at GDC that they're still around, in one form or another.

The Runestone system was originally created to add flexibility to character skills, and to give players a chance to experiment and play around with new abilities after they had gained them through leveling up. The original idea had ten different effects that could be added to various abilities, including striking, lethality, efficiency, life-stealing, poison, slowing and so on. But ten was too many, Blizzard decided, and they opted to boil them down into five different stone types (Crimson, Obsidian, Indigo, Golden and Alabaster) that would each affect skills in a few different ways.

Cheng said having actual stones in the inventory worked in a few different ways. It gave the system a sense of discovery, as players enjoyed seeing which stones granted certain effects, and it accomplished the original goal of allowing players to experiment with customization. Managing the stones in the game's inventory was a "nightmare," according to Cheng, and player expectations didn't always match what the stones actually provided.

In the end, the team went with the existing Skill Rune system, which allowed Blizzard to give specific skill and stone combinations more "flavorful names," and let the team make sure that the added effects were appropriate for the skills they matched. But Cheng said the effects were still in there: Some runes still slow opponents or add more damage to attacks, and those were the effects originally conferred by the stones of Indigo and Crimson.
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blizzardblizzard-entertainmentcharacterdesigndesignerdesignersdiablo-3gdcgdc-2013gdc2013pcrunesrunestonesskill-runesskillswyatt-chengSat, 30 Mar 2013 15:00:00 -040011|20523647https://massively.joystiq.com/2012/10/01/not-so-massively-diablo-iiis-monster-power-system-and-lols-wo/https://massively.joystiq.com/2012/10/01/not-so-massively-diablo-iiis-monster-power-system-and-lols-wo/https://massively.joystiq.com/2012/10/01/not-so-massively-diablo-iiis-monster-power-system-and-lols-wo/#comments

This week Riot Games revealed details of the League of Legends $2,000,000 World Championship that's just two weeks away. Dota 2 celebrated its own world champions with a new blog post dedicated to the Aegis of Champions plaque given to this year's winners of The International. Upcoming console MOBA Guardians of Middle-earth showed off its PAX 2012 recap video this week, and Heroes of Newerth revealed its new hero, Solstice, who transforms during the night.

Torchlight II continues to dominate the game charts this week with impressive sales on Steam and even more impressive Metacritic scores. Upcoming free-to-play action RPG Path of Exile took another big step toward release this week with the addition of voice acting to quests. And Blizzard revealed details on Diablo III's next big patch, discussing increased legendary drop rates and the new Monster Power system that will let players customise their own difficulty levels.

Upcoming FPS Firefall revealed its impressive plans for Dynamic Events this week, with both local events and global invasions on the menu. Finally, Blacklight: Retribution followed last week's sniper montage contest with details of a new sniper-focused map and a new sniper rifle that would make Counterstrike players cry.
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a-million-dollarsaction-mmoaction-rpgaegis-of-championsand-then-we-doubled-itbarbarianbattlenetbetasblacklightblacklight-retributionblizzardblizzard-entertainmentcash-prizecompetitive-gamingconsoled3diablodiablo iiidiablo-2diablo-3diablo-iidiablo-iiidotadota-2dynamic-eventdynamic-eventse-sporte-sportsenergy-twisteresportesportsevents (real-world)f2pfantasyfeaturedfirefallfpsfree-to-playgame mechanicsgothic-fantasygrinding-geargrinding-gear-gamesguild-wars-2gw2heroes-of-newerthhoninfernojay-wilsonleague of legendsleague-of-legendslegendarylegendary-itemslegendary-weaponslollord-of-the-ringslotrmagic-findmetacriticmeteormiddle-earthmmofpsmobamonolithmonolith-studiosmonster-powermultiplayerncsoftnerfnew titlesnewsnews itemsnot so massivelynot-so-massivelynsmone-million-dollarsonline-multiplayerpatchespath-of-exileperfect-worldperfect-world-entertainmentplaqueplaystation-networkpoeps3psnpvepvppweriotriot-gamesround-uprounduprpgrun-like-the-winds2s2-gamessolsticesteamvalvevideovoice-actingwarner-broswhirlwindwizardwizard-nerfwyatt-chengxboxxbox-360xbox-livexbox360zombie-studiosMon, 01 Oct 2012 20:00:00 -0400319|20337301https://www.joystiq.com/2012/09/18/diablo-3-inferno-difficulty-monster-damage-balance-tweaked/https://www.joystiq.com/2012/09/18/diablo-3-inferno-difficulty-monster-damage-balance-tweaked/https://www.joystiq.com/2012/09/18/diablo-3-inferno-difficulty-monster-damage-balance-tweaked/#comments

Blizzard is making a few tweaks to Diablo 3's Inferno difficulty yet again. The developer added more high-level drops to the difficulty before, and this time it's effectively reducing the damage monsters will do in that mode. As Technical Game Designer Wyatt Cheng says, Blizzard is reducing the potency of player defense spells and reducing the monster damage, which means that monsters in Inferno won't hit as hard overall.

Why? Some defensive skills, Cheng says, were made so effective that players consider them essential. Energy Armor, for example, is used by 83 percent of level 60 wizards, and War Cry's Impunity modifier is used by over 87 percent of barbarians. Nerfing the monster damage and the effectiveness of these spells is supposed to let players go to other options, rather than just walling up defense all of the time.

Cheng says there are more changes coming: A new "monster power" option to up the difficulty for higher rewards; and a tweak to the monk's One With Everything skill. We'll stay tuned for those.
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defensedesignerdiablo-3difficultyinfernopcwizardswyatt-chengTue, 18 Sep 2012 03:00:00 -040011|20325654https://massively.joystiq.com/2012/09/10/not-so-massively-diablo-iii-world-first-level-100-and-pax-wrap/https://massively.joystiq.com/2012/09/10/not-so-massively-diablo-iii-world-first-level-100-and-pax-wrap/https://massively.joystiq.com/2012/09/10/not-so-massively-diablo-iii-world-first-level-100-and-pax-wrap/#comments

The League of Legends North American regional tournament concluded this week with Team Solo Mid, Team Dignitas, and Counter Logic Gaming securing spots in October's World Championship games. Riot Games also revealed its new livestream portal this week; it supports popular livestreamers with news coverage and even prizes to give away to viewers. Wrath of Heroes released its new ranged Dwarven Engineer hero Durrig, and we heard that upcoming Korean free-for-all MOBACore Masters Online may be getting an English-language release.

As game developers around the world recover from PAX 2012, videos are starting to surface showing highlights from the event. Firefall developer Red 5 Studios laid the whole PAX experience bare in a three-part video series covering the tense week of preparation for the event and its final execution. Torchlight II developer Runic Games posted its own PAX wrap-up video and its official release trailer this week, pre-empting the game's launch in just under two weeks time.

Upcoming free-to-play action RPG Path of Exile released its 10th video in the popular Build of the Week series. Diablo III celebrates its first player to reach paragon level 100, and developers published a new journal entry on upcoming changes to the game's crowd control mechanics.
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action-mmoaction-rpgalkaizerbarbarianbattlenetbehind-the-scenesbiowareblizzardblizzard-entertainmentbuild-of-the-weekcccompetitive-gamingcrowd-controld3diablodiablo iiidiablo-2diablo-3diablo-iidiablo-iiidotadungeonsdurrige-sporte-sportseaelectronic-artsendgameesportesportsevents (real-world)f2pfantasyfeaturedffafirefallfree-for-allfree-to-playgame mechanicsgothic-fantasygrinding-geargrinding-gear-gamesinfernokoreakoreanleague of legendsleague-of-legendslolmobamultiplayermythicmythic-entertainmentnew titlesnewsnews itemsnot so massivelynot-so-massivelynsmonline-multiplayerparagonparagon-100paragon-levelparagon-level-100paragon-studiospath-of-exilepaxpax-2012poepvepvpred-5-studiosriotriot-gamesround-uprounduprpgrunic-gamessoft-big-bangvideowarhammerwarhammer-wrath-of-heroeswohwrath-of-heroeswyatt-chengMon, 10 Sep 2012 20:00:00 -0400319|20319331https://massively.joystiq.com/2012/09/05/diablo-iii-tries-a-new-approach-to-crowd-control/https://massively.joystiq.com/2012/09/05/diablo-iii-tries-a-new-approach-to-crowd-control/https://massively.joystiq.com/2012/09/05/diablo-iii-tries-a-new-approach-to-crowd-control/#comments

If you've been playing Diablo III and thought that its crowd control mechanics felt, well, weak, then Blizzard agrees with you. In a new post on the official site, Senior Technical Game Designer Wyatt Cheng explains the original reasoning behind Diablo III's crowd control, brainstorming sessions that the devs had to fix it, and the team's final decision. Coming soon to the game will be a buff for CC that creates new rules for how mobs process these abilities when used against them.

Cheng explains it thusly: "Monsters have a 'CC resistance' that is stored on a per-monster basis. The CC resistance starts at 0%. For every one second CC that is applied to the monster, the monster receives 10% CC resistance. Monsters lose 10% of their CC resistance every second that they are not CC'd. Elite monster CC resistance is capped at the current reduction values already active for Elites."

He says that after the change, "near-infinite CC strategies will work," making the player feel powerful while not unbalancing the game.
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action-rpgbattlenetblizzardblizzard-entertainmentcash-shopcccrowd-controld3dev diariesdev-blogdev-diarydev-postdeveloper-diarydiablodiablo iiidiablo-2diablo-3diablo-iidiablo-iiifantasygothic-fantasymultiplayeronline-multiplayerroguelikerpgwyatt-chengWed, 05 Sep 2012 16:00:00 -0400319|20317005https://massively.joystiq.com/2012/08/11/play-together-loot-alone-in-diablo-iiis-1-0-4-patch/https://massively.joystiq.com/2012/08/11/play-together-loot-alone-in-diablo-iiis-1-0-4-patch/https://massively.joystiq.com/2012/08/11/play-together-loot-alone-in-diablo-iiis-1-0-4-patch/#comments

What would it take to get you to give Diablo III another go? A whopping patch, perhaps? Blizzard is banking on it. In the game's upcoming 1.0.4 update, the team aims to revamp more than a few major systems, so Senior Technical Game Designer Wyatt Cheng took to the official blog to lay out the plan.

For starters, Blizz wants to boost the number of folks playing co-op. That means nuking magic-find averaging in co-op matches; in 1.0.4, you'll benefit from your individual looting bonuses, and monster health will be shaved incrementally as more players join a game.

The devs are likewise "making a metric-ton of changes to classes," so expect more Battle.net blog posts in the near future.
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action-rpgbattlenetblizzardblizzard-entertainmentbuffscash-shopd3diablodiablo iiidiablo-2diablo-3diablo-iidiablo-iiifantasygame mechanicsgothic-fantasymagic-findmultiplayernerfsnews itemsonline-multiplayerpatchpatchesroguelikerpgskillswyatt-chengSat, 11 Aug 2012 11:00:00 -0400319|20298786https://wow.joystiq.com/2012/08/10/blizzard-releases-details-for-diablo-iiis-big-1-0-4-patch/https://wow.joystiq.com/2012/08/10/blizzard-releases-details-for-diablo-iiis-big-1-0-4-patch/https://wow.joystiq.com/2012/08/10/blizzard-releases-details-for-diablo-iiis-big-1-0-4-patch/#comments

Blizzard has been promising for a while that Diablo III's patch 1.0.4 would be a Capital B D Big Deal for the game, and a blog post from developer Wyatt Cheng seems to reinforce that notion. What's missing from this particular post is specifics about the sweeping class changes the devs have been talking about, but apparently that's going to be a whole 'nother blog, so fear not.

Some major features of the patch are below, with the whole blog after the cut.

Magic find and gold find will no longer be averaged in multiplayer games.

Monster health will now be a flat increase of 75% health (per player), regardless of the game's difficulty level.

No more Out Of Time enrage timers on elites or healing to full after you die a few times.

Normal monster HP is increasing by a slight amount, but the chance of finding rare items on normal monsters is being increased by a factor of four.

To close the gap between normals and elites, elite HP will be reduced slightly.

Weapons of ilvl 61 and 62 can now roll weapon damage that extends to numbers currently reserved for ilvl 63+.

Use of two-handed weapons will be encouraged by new sets of affixes.

Repair costs of high-end items will be reduced by about 25%.

Problem affixes like Fire Chains and Shielding are being adjusted, and Invulnerable Minions is gone, baby, gone.

Diablo III is not an MMO by any stretch of the imagination, but it certainly has some strong online elements like previous installments. It also has a lot of expectations to live up to, several of which are discussed in a recent PC Gamer interview with Wyatt Cheng and Andrew Chambers. Both designers discuss the challenge level of the new Inferno difficulty, which is aimed at max-level characters in good gear who have already completed the Hell difficulty level. They confirm that while it's meant to be brutal, it can be played and beaten solo -- although having a friend won't hurt.

And speaking of getting by with a bit of help from one's friends, Cheng and Chambers both agree that twinking out new characters is a time-honored part of the game's tradition; their job as designers requires them to find ways to ensure that twinking is a fun process for players. It's the sort of interview that can leave fans wanting more of the game before it's released -- which ties in nicely to the fact that you can pre-order the Book of Cain (a collection of in-universe lore and artwork) on Amazon right now. And you can even take a look past the break to see what the book looks like.
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activision-blizzardandrew-chambersartifactsbackstoryblizzardblizzard-entertainmentchallenged3designdiablodiablo-3diablo-iiidiablo-iii-betadifficultydiiifantasygame mechanicsinterviewsloremultiplayernewsnews itemspreviewsupdatesvideowyatt-chengMon, 05 Dec 2011 18:30:00 -0500319|20121238https://www.joystiq.com/2011/10/25/diablo-3-being-polished-up-no-release-date-yet/https://www.joystiq.com/2011/10/25/diablo-3-being-polished-up-no-release-date-yet/https://www.joystiq.com/2011/10/25/diablo-3-being-polished-up-no-release-date-yet/#comments

The build of Diablo 3 being shown at BlizzCon 2011 last week did have a few polish updates, but generally it was the same content previously available in the beta, which we've covered thoroughly so far. Diablo 3's Technical Director Wyatt Chang agreed while chatting with me last week that the game is basically content complete, but the polish phase is far from over. "Content complete for us usually means things like voice recording, art, assets are in place, but it doesn't mean that things like the tuning, balance, and game systems are in place."

The team is still working hard on some of the core concepts, however -- one issue that's come up lately is whether players can switch skills on the fly or not. In the beta, says Cheng, "you can play with your skill window open, and you can switch skills in the middle of the fight, which has some upsides and it's very cool in one regard, but on the whole, I think it's sort of a more negative experience, and a lot of people in the community have agreed." Just recently, the team was dealing with things like "how many Pages of Training you can have in one stack," so they are starting to dive into the nitty gritty of how the game will work.%Gallery-137262%
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betablizzcon-2011designdiablo-3interviewpcpolishingskillswyatt-chengTue, 25 Oct 2011 16:16:00 -040011|20089432https://www.joystiq.com/2011/08/01/diablo-3-beta-preview/https://www.joystiq.com/2011/08/01/diablo-3-beta-preview/https://www.joystiq.com/2011/08/01/diablo-3-beta-preview/#comments

While all the Diablo 3 talk this week will probably center around Blizzard's announcement of the player-to-player auction system, there's plenty to say about the game itself. It's the most polished it has ever been, and while the mechanics were in and working at the last BlizzCon, this beta build featured all of the classes with both sexes, the early questlines and story in the beginning of Act 1, co-op play, and the latest implementation of the full skill and crafting systems. We didn't get to play with the skill-tweaking Runes, but we were shown them being slotted and used in a hands-off demo.

Regardless of how you feel about real-money transactions and third-party payment providers, Diablo 3 is still turning out to be one hell of a videogame.
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blizzard-entertainmentcraftingdiablodiablo-3pcskillswyatt-chengMon, 01 Aug 2011 03:01:00 -040011|20002849